Lymphoid Cellular Responses in the Blood After Immunization in Man

Abstract

A combined morphological and metabolic study has been made of the lymphoid cells in the blood during the immune response in man. Similar changes were observed in both primary and secondary responses to a number of different microbial antigens. The cellular response involved an increase in numbers of three types of cell; hyperbasophilic medium lymphocytes, plasma cells, and large lymphoid cells. The large lymphoid cells were about 20 µ in diameter with large nuclei, prominent nucleoli, and an intensely basophilic cytoplasm with numerous polyribosomes. About 30% of these cells were in the DNA synthetic phase of cell growth. Electron microscopy has shown that many of the basophilic medium-sized cells have sufficient well-organized endoplasmic reticulum to be included in the plasma cell series. The hyperbasophilic cells labeled more heavily with tritiated uridine and tritiated leucine than the normal small and medium lymphocytes from the peripheral blood of patients not under antigenic stimulation. The evidence in this paper supports the argument that the atypical mononuclear cells first described by Türk and others in the blood of patients with infections are immunoblasts, plasma cells, and other reactive lymphoid cells representing a circulating population of lymphoid cells derived from lymphoid tissue responding to antigenic stimulation. The presence of such cells may be a valuable indication that an immunological reaction is in progress when direct proof is lacking.

Abnormalities of in vitro immunoglobulin synthesis by peripheral blood lymphocytes from untreated patients with Hodgkin's disease.

“…Since we could exclude the possibility that normal T cells were affected by products of HD B cells, such as anti-T antibodies, it is reasonable to suppose that the reduction of spontaneous IgG production in vitro reflects differences in the regulatory ability of normal and HD T lymphocytes. This possibility was further supported by the observation that the addition of T (39), which spontaneously synthesize DNA (40,41) and show similarities with lymphocytes detectable under conditions of known antigenic challenge (42,43). It is also consistent with the demonstration of in vivo production of migration-inhibitory lymphokinelike substances (44 …”

Reactive Plasmacytosis

“…This high proliferative activity confirms that the reactive plasmacytosis can be considered as an im munological reaction to an antigen (tumoral cells, bacteria, virus), similar to that which occurs with im munization or vaccination [10]. As these findings are in sharp contrast with those observed in MG, we find it useful to point out the difference found in kinetic studies in reactive plasmacytosis as compared to MG.…”

Cellular and Humoral Immunity in Cartilage-Hair Hypoplasia

“…The absolute blood lymphoblast count did not differ from that in the control subjects. The presence of increased numbers of lymphoblasts in peripheral blood is regarded as a manifestation of an immune response (3,28), but the relation of this response to humoral and cellular immunity is not known. However, a relation to cellular immunity is suggested by the findings that lymphoblasts were predominantly T cells both in infections caused by two herpes viruses, Epstein-Barr virus (26,29) and cytomegalovirus (29), and in the "physiologic lymphoblast response" during the neonatal period (18).…”